All posts tagged BA cabin crew

The issue of uncontrollable children and flying has been a topic of conversation recently–how they can be a cause of irritation but they can also be a obstacle to getting things done efficiently.

I wonder if British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association (BASSA), the arm of union Unite that’s dedicated to BA cabin crew, is proving to be Unite’s unruly child, in need of permanent time out in the “naughty chair.”

BA recently asked cabin crew to close the blinds of every window as part of their normal routine. To explain: if the plane is being parked overnight and it’s rather hot outside, closing the shutters helps keep the aircraft a little cooler and saves on air-conditioning costs.

Hardly a huge demand that’ll break your back. However a BASSA posting titled “Closing Window Blinds at the End of Your Flight” on August 2 (now taken down) shows how BASSA are perhaps proving quite the hindrance to resolving a dispute between BA and it’s cabin crew.

Does anyone remember the story of Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, who fought in World War II? When leaflets were dropped from the sky to tell Japanese soldiers the war had ended and that they should surrender, Onoda reckoned it was a hoax and instead continued to hide in the jungle.

It wasn’t for another 29 years that he finally emerged, after someone discovered him. But even then he took some persuading.

The reason I bring this up is because I feel someone needs to tell British Airways’ cabin crew: “It’s over.”

It emerged today, in an article by Financial News’ Elizabeth Pfeuti, that British Airways pilots are understood to have pulled tens of millions of pounds from the company’s pension scheme this year due to fears that industrial action by cabin crew could endanger the future of the scheme and risk it falling into the hands of the U.K.’s pensions lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund.

So far this year, pilots with combined pension pots amounting to at least £20 million (€23.1million) have pulled the assets they have built through company and personal contributions out of the main BA-run pension schemes, according to Hargreaves Lansdown, the U.K.’s largest personal financial adviser, which has had requests from pilots looking to move their assets.

These BA employees opted to invest their money in a personal pension product, as they feared if the company was pushed to bankruptcy their annual retirement benefit would be capped by the PPF.

The frustration is understandable. As one colleague, desperate to get to South Africa, told me within minutes of news breaking: “Unite is killing me!”

It’s a pain for the public. But how this case panned out is important. It could have changed the face of employment law, and could have made it practically impossible for anyone to strike in practice.

Lets remember, workers have had the right to strike since 1906 and when the 1992 Labor Relations Act specifically was put in place, the internet, text messaging or email wasn’t used anything like as widely as it is today.

There was no doubt the ballot had been conducted according to the law but the three judges had to decide if Unite had done enough in its actions to provide a breakdown of ballot results according to the law that BA tried to base its argument on, as detailed here.